Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-01-20
The Lontaon catastrophe.

The london Catastrophe.
The hall in Princess street, Spitalields,
London, where fatal panic occurred Tues
day night, is q Iavorite resort for the He
brews OF that part OF London. Entertain
ments have been given there every night
for g long time past. Tuesday evening o
benefit performance was given, and the
place was crowded During the progress of
the play, man and woman quarrcled in
the street outside, and near The main door.
wav of the hall The mau used violence,
and the woman screamed. Her cry was
heard by passer-by, who misunderstood it
and shouted "fre." The woman's screams
and the cries of fire" were heard inside,
and at once created panic, the audience,
numbering five hundred, rising IN body
and rushing pell-mell for the llain entrance.
The audience was almost entirely composed
of Hebrews. The manager Of the Hebrew
Dramatic Club, which was giving the en-
tertainment, was On the stage when the
panic began He perceived st once that
there was no good reason for it, and did al
in his power to allay the excitement, and to
afford all possible facilities for the exit OF
=
frances. and he had them al thrown wide
open. and called on the people, when they
would not remain, to divide and use all the
doorways, but they paid no attention TO him.
In fact, many of them construed the mana
gers earnestness into proof that there
was q fire, and these increased their
exertions TO get out. The whole crowd,
as if with one impulse, made for the
main entrance 1t happened that among
those who first reached it were . number OF
women and children, who had been occupy
ing some Of the rear seats. They were over
borne by strong men attempting to pass
them, and as the women and children tell
ut the doorway es stumbling blocks, they
tripped mp others, who were crushed down
by the rush OF the frantic crowd. 1t took
but few minutes 10 empty the house, and
the alarm wss so thorough that not soul
among the entire audience rerained from
the struggle to get out. When the people,
after reaching the street. escertalned the
facts of the situation, g scene o! great dis-
order of another kind ensued, caused by the
discovery that numbers were missing. Then
rush back was made. This, however, was
stopped at the main entrance by the police,
who had arrived and assumed control. Sev-
enteen corpses were found inside the thea
crushed and disfigured. Il was found that
of the dead twelve were women, three were
bows. one was girl snd the other . man.
The remains were almost unacceptable.
Eye-witnesses say that the way the strong
men, who got uppermCst in the struggle at
the door, crushed and trampled en- these
who fell down IN the confict,was indescriba-
bly ruthless and brutal, although, OF course,
not willful, it being supreme case OF 'eV-
erv one for himself 1t is stated
that number Of infants, carried
in their mothers arms, and cluug
to through all the panic, were also
crushed and smothered TO death, and that
number Of others were fatally injured. The
scene during the attempted return OF the
crowd was painful in the extreme. The be-
reeyed remained at the doorways all night,
waiting to have their dead restored to them,
and the lamentations Of the women were
heartbreakug. The police have been Civ
ING number of contradictory stories about
the cause of the panic One statement is
that thieves started the cry of fire" for the
purpose of getting an opportunity to despo!
the many rich Jewesses in the hall of the
costly jewelry they bore on their persons to
the entertainment The hall now resembles
a disordered auction room. Broken turnl-
ture, crushed toys. children's hats, broken
bottles, orange peel, actors wigs and shreds
Of clothes lie scattered over the floor.
There are many blood spots on the backs of
chairs, as well as on the floor. Every here
and there ghastly knots Of hair are clingDg
to toe furniture. Several escapes were
made through the windows, most of which
are badly smashed. The bodies were found
at the bottom of the stone stairs leading to
the gallery. Here terrible struggle took
place between the front of the crowd rush
ing from the main floor and the leaders of
the throng which rushed down the gallery
stairs. The dead lay mostly in two op-
posing rows, the feet of each row close
TO those OF the other, one row OF heads lying
toward the gallery stairway, the. other to-
wards the opposite side of the ball. The
faces of the dead were distorted with ago.
nizing expressions. The clothes were COM
pletely torn from the bodies Of some of the
victims. A little girl, since identified as
Eva Marks, was found lying ut the bottom
of a pile of dead Her lower limbs were
bare, and the upper part of her dress was
torn to shreds, showing that she had fought
hard for life. Isaac Levy, venerable He.
brew, with long white flowing heard and
hair, was found among the dead. He and
his wife were regular attendants at the per-
formances which had been given in the hail.
They always sat near the door. IL is
thought from the position in which bis body
was found that Mr.. Levy, instead of fleeing
alone when the panic started remained to
help and protect his wife. So the old man
was brushed down by ths rushing crowd
and stamped to death. His wife's body lay
opposite The woman was in the prime of
life, and wore brightly colored clothes and